The Champs! Forge win CPL final in OT thriller

Tristan Borges scored a goal for the ages Saturday night, as Hamilton’s Forge FC won the Canadian Premier League championship yet again, but this time at Tim Horton’s Field.

Borges’ rare “Olympico” goal, a powerful, bending corner kick that beat a diving Calgary Cavalry FC keeper Marco Carducci to the wide side, gave the Hammers a 2-1 lead in a game already 21 minutes into extra time. The team then clamped down on defence for the final nine minutes and sent 13,925 fans home deliriously happy. An Olympico is a goal scored directly off a corner, touched by no one.

The game was tied at nil after 90 minutes and Cavalry struck first in extra time as Ali Musse found the back of the net 11 minutes into the 30 minutes of overtime. Forge’s Beni Badibanga tied the game soon after on a shot after a Kyle Bekker corner kick.

Then came Borges heroics. “It’s crazy,” is how he described the goal to CHCH’s Brianne Foley after the game.

“There’s no better feeling,” added head coach Bobby Smyrniotis. “I know we’ve done this before but to do it here at Tim Horton’s field in front of this crowd, and the energy, the atmosphere in the stadium, is something else.”

Even when the team fell behind by a goal in OT, the coach said the team could feel the support of the fans and in the end, “magic happened at Tim Horton’s field under the lights.”